Postmortem: Ensemble Studio's Age of Empires II: Age of Kings

One of
the touchiest and most personal issues concerned letting success go
to our heads. The success of AoE is something that a lot of people
in this business have not experienced. It exceeded our wildest dreams
and allowed our company to take charge of our destiny. I remember when
we got our first AoE royalty check — I had never held a multi-million
dollar check before. That was great. We all got caught up in how good
we were doing. Over time an attitude of invincibility set in. With a
success like AoE, it’s easy to forget what it was like to wonder
if we were going to be in business the next year. At some of the industry
events such as the Game Developers Conference and E3, some of our people
behaved in ways that embarrassed us. With success comes a responsibility
to behave appropriately — the game industry is a small and incestuous
one, and nothing lasts forever. Behaving in an exemplary manner and
being friends with the industry at large is far more important than
chest-beating about our current success. Suffice it to say that people
in the Ensemble Studios organization have stepped forward to address
this and we have challenged ourselves to be better people.

All the
early indications for AoK are that it’s going to be a blockbuster
on the order of its predecessor, and maybe even greater. The reviews
from the press have been unbelievably positive. According to PC Data,
AoK was the number-one selling game in October.

The great
success of AoE made it possible for us to go to the next level
of making great games. Though it enabled us to grow and acquire greater
resources, it also raised expectations for our next game and spawned
a host of new challenges. Meeting these new expectations has proved
to be just as tough and rewarding a journey as creating the first game.
In the end we succeeded in creating a game to be proud of, and I feel
privileged to have been part of it.

Matt
Pritchard is busy trying to be a modern renaissance man. When not working,
he can be found with his family or playing with his collection of antique
video games and computers. He can be reached at [email protected].